Manage your subscription

Autism alters how kids sense motion

HOW a new action feels is more important than how it looks for children with autism. This could be why they find imitation tough.

Reza Shadmehr and colleagues at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, trained children with and without autism to “catch” a virtual animal using a cursor controlled by a robotic arm. The arm resisted movement in certain directions, and the kids learned to use the required extra force. The researchers then switched off the resistance and asked the children to reach for two new targets. One required them to make the cursor move in the same …